Well Saturday was a VERY important milestone in the restoration of my 914. Joe George a mobile welder from the Valley came over to operate on my car.

It turned out to be an eight hour operation but everything worked out great. I was really impressed with Joe. From my very limited welding experience, I have to say Joe was worth every penny. Even though he was being paid by the hour, he was working himself at a great pace (come to think of it, maybe it was that he REALLY didn't like my conversation skills and wanted to get the Hell out of Dodge? ).

So here is what I had done...

In the Engine Bay: Passenger Side Hell Hole, Passenger side Engine shelf fabrication (Originally cut for AC), Battery Tray shelf re-mount & AC holes filled (By Battery Tray).

In the Driver Compartment: Passenger Side Firewall hole (from Hell Hole), Drivers side hole under seat (one big & two or three small), Drivers side lower Firewall hole, Re-attach post for Emergency Brake handle And Heat & loosen all four seat brackets.

In the Front Trunk: Cut and replace old AC hole with donor piece from Aaron & Ron ( ).

And mount Engman's U Tabs to the A Arms (Boy I hope I did this right ).

All in All I would have to say not too shabby for a day's work.

Next stop, Por15, Seam Sealer & some paint.

Now on to the pictures...


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After Aaron & I pulled out the engine last weekend, I pulled and degreased a few of the easy to get tin pieces and heater boxes so Aaron could take them down to Slits () Friday evening to bead blast them along with a set of racing rims Aaron recently acquired (Thanks again Aaron ). Below are the pictures of how they came back. You'll notice that the tin wasn't in the best shape to begin with but Aaron and that bead blaster did a great job cleaning them up. There was some nasty epoxy on the top pieces that just wouldn't come off but look how great the other pieces and heater boxes cleaned up. Now I don't plan powder coating these (they are just not worth the money) but I do plan to follow Brando's example from last month

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Look what I got in the mail Today...

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Well I got something done on the 914 Today, Woo Hoo . Thanks to Aaron , we were able to drop the engine so I can get the Hell Hole welded up next weekend (even bigger Woo Hoo). I took care of most of the prep work yesterday so the actual engine drop took less than 20 minutes.

My problem now is that with the engine out there are soo many little projects I want to take care, that I'm not sure when I'll ever get the engine back in. At least with the welding done, I can put the driver’s compartment back together (well most of it anyway)...

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No Porsche updates but here's a picture of my son & I last week in Las Vegas (just got out of the pool)...

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Well I really haven't done much lately to the car, just more grinding of the seam sealer & tar residue removal.

I did go to the DMV yesterday and take her off of Non Operational Status (which she has been for the last 8 years) Woo Hoo.

I also got a hold of a semi-local Porsche welder to take care of my floor pan & hell hole (thanks Aaron & Matt). He will be coming out the first week of July, so I really need to finish the brakes, drive her around for a day then drop the engine all in the next week (don't think I'll make it).

More before pictures soon....

Did a little work on the seam sealer crap over the weekend (I think this is worse than the tar ). At least I didn't find any bad rust under the pedal cluster . As it stands now, my only rust problems (inside that is) are located under the drivers seat.

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Look, no more Tar! Now for the cleanup....

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And if that wasn't bad enough, I found a doorway to my personal 'Hell Hole' Of course the holes inside are from me poking with the screwdriver.

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And with that, I started to dig some more....

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